Abstract: One embodiment disclosed relates to a method for remote mirroring of network traffic. A data packet to be remotely mirrored is received by an entry device. The entry device is pre-configured with a destination address to which to mirror the data packet. The packet to be mirrored is encrypted. An encapsulating header is generated and added to encapsulate the encrypted packet. The encapsulating header includes the aforementioned destination address. The encapsulated packet is forwarded to an exit device associated with the destination address, where the packet may be decapsulated, and then decrypted, before being sent out of a port. In another embodiment, the entry and exit devices are remotely configured with encryption and decryption keys, respectively.

Abstract: One embodiment disclosed relates to a method for mirroring of select network traffic. A data packet is received by a network device. A determination is made as to whether a designated aspect of the packet matches a flagged entry in a look-up table on the network device. If a match is found, then copy of the packet is sent to an associated mirror destination. Another embodiment disclosed relates to a networking apparatus. The apparatus includes at least an operating system, a look-up table, and a mirroring engine. The operating system includes routines utilized to control the apparatus, and the look-up table includes selection information for mirror sources. The mirroring engine forwards copies of selected packets to a corresponding mirror destination. Another embodiment disclosed relates to a method of selecting packets to mirror that includes checking state information relating to the network traffic against dynamic mirroring criteria.

Abstract: One embodiment disclosed relates to a method for remote mirroring of network traffic. A data packet to be remotely mirrored is received by an entry device. The entry device is pre-configured with a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address to which to mirror the data packet. An IP header is generated and added to IP encapsulate the data packet. The IP header includes the aforementioned destination IP address. The IP-encapsulated packet is forwarded to an exit device associated with the destination IP address. Subsequently, the exit device may decapsulate the IP-encapsulated packet to reproduce the original data packet.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for trunking multiple links between a switch and a server. Server drivers recognize and automatically configure additional installed network interface cards (NICs) or multi-port NICs as group members. A monolithic driver, or an overlaying driver shim makes the group of NICs appear to be a single NIC to the server operating system and clients. Multiple NICs having the same MAC address and appearing on different ports are connected directly to a switch which treats the group as a single logical port. Using a deterministic algorithm, the switch looks up a received packet's destination in the address table. A list of possible ports for reaching the server and a flag indicating that the server is to be reached via this trunked group of ports are retrieved. The switch selects a port based upon the packet's source address. On the trunk to the clients, the server driver performs the same deterministic algorithm on the destination addresses.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for trunking multiple links between a switch and a server. Server drivers recognize and automatically configure additional installed network interface cards (NICs) or multi-port NICs as group members. A monolithic driver, or an overlaying driver shim makes the group of NICs appear to be a single NIC to the server operating system and clients. Multiple NICs having the same MAC address and appearing on different ports are connected directly to a switch which treats the group as a single logical port. Using a deterministic algorithm, the switch looks up a received packet's destination in the address table. A list of possible ports for reaching the server and a flag indicating that the server is to be reached via this trunked group of ports are retrieved. The switch selects a port based upon the packet's source address. On the trunk to the clients, the server driver performs the same deterministic algorithm on the destination addresses. The invention supports fault tolerance.